MORE THAN 40 foreign ministers will today outline their clearest timetable yet for handing over responsibility for security and state-building to the Afghan government, paving the way for an eventual withdrawal by foreign troops.
The Kabul international conference will lay down the beginnings of a transition plan allowing Hamid Karzai’s regime to take charge of how aid is spent and reduce its dependence on western backers. In return, the Kabul regime will sign up to targets to reform and grow its weak central administration and try to bolster the economy.
As death tolls mount and scepticism grows in the West over the eight-year campaign, the conference will also set a target for international combat troops to leave the front line within four years.
A conference communique will announce a timetable for handing over provinces to Afghan forces, beginning with the safest early next year, until Afghan troops take charge of fighting the Taliban by 2014. Foreign troops are likely to remain as military trainers.
Conference organisers hope the event will allow the mistrusted and corrupt Kabul regime to win over Afghans with firm promises of reform and rebuilding. After eight years of broken promises to improve the lives of Afghans, Mr Karzai’s regime is seen as having lost legitimacy and public support. Public resentment has fostered the Taliban-led insurgency.
Staffan de Mistura, head of the United Nations in Afghanistan, said: “It is not a [money] pledging conference, it will be a commitment from Afghans to Afghans. It’s a renewed commitment from the Afghan government to the Afghan people.”
Ashraf Ghani, a candidate in last year’s presidential election who organised the conference, said: “It’s fundamental that we better the lives of the Afghan people and that is going to be the result that we want to achieve.”
Attendees will include US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon.
Iran, Pakistan and India will all be represented by their foreign ministers, and representatives from Nato and the World Bank will also attend.
Kabul’s city centre remained under strict security lockdown yesterday amid fears the Taliban would try to capitalise on the event by carrying out a terrorist attack.
Kabul’s diplomatic districts were closed to traffic and the government declared yesterday and today public holidays. Thousands of police and soldiers manned checkpoints on nearly deserted roads, while municipal workers tried to beautify the potholed streets by festooning roundabouts with Afghan flags.
Mark Sedwill, Nato’s civilian representative in Afghanistan, said the deadline for Afghan forces taking charge was challenging but realistic.
“Of course this has to be a conditions-based process and we will only transition the lead and more and more of the responsibility for conducting operations as the Afghan forces build up their capability,” he said.
Currently one-fifth of the billions of dollars donated to Afghanistan passes via the government’s own accounts. The rest is spent by aid agencies or contractors.
The conference will commit to increasing that proportion to half within two years, despite fears that large sums are being stolen and then flown from the country.
A draft version of the communique, seen by The Irish Times, suggests Mr Karzai's regime will promise to draft anti-corruption legislation and reform ineffectual ministries. It will set targets for recruitment of civil servants, road building programmes, education and growing tax incomes.